Jackal Song
by WolfMoonSinger
Summary: An alternate universe story. Atem, new to the throne of Egypt, is faced with his first issue as king: A band of nomads have come to town, bringing with them a nightly threat of very unsual jackals. Atem must negotiate with their leader, who refuses to leave the city.
1. Memories

~Forward~

Atem was standing on his balcony, the roaring of the crowd below him swelling so much that it was becoming nothing more than a buzzing sensation in his ears. He was grateful that he was high enough to be able to stare off into space and get away wth it. A slender arm slithered around his, and he turned to see his queen smiling radiantly at the common people, raising her arm in greeting. He dipped his head to his people, all too ready to return inside the palace after his speech, but then something in the very back of the crowd caught his eye.

Two figures were struggling with each other, one trying to drag the other away. Priest Seto stepped forward so that he was on Atem's side and continued the speech-making about their victory over the last wave of invaders, leaving the Pharaoh free to watch the tussle beyond the ken of his citizens. A hood was ripped back, revealing a long, waved mane of wind-blown brown hair. The woman's head turned towards him, and she must have seen him go rigid because she froze as well. He couldn't see her nearly as well as he thought she could see him. But he didn't have to. He knew who she was.

After a moment, she released her companion's arm and fled the scene. The other turned momentarily to the king, but then quickly joined the woman.

The crowd started cheering again as Seto finished speaking, and he, the pharaoh, the queen, and all the others of the royal court on the balcony turned and went inside. It was now that he was aware of Tewosret- Twore, to her equals- gripping his arm tightly. She was still wearing her dazzling smile, but she spoke to him in a low, grinding tone.

"What was going on out there?" his queen demanded, stopping him as the others continued on to their normal business, "What had you so worked up."

Atem gazed at her, listening to the ice that was replacing what should have been compassion. "It's a long story," he murmured, escaping from her grasp and walking out of the room. He needed to go to the stables and ride.

~In the Desert~

"Wait!"

The hooded girl yelled after her mother as the brown-haired woman strode away, looking for a good place to go back undercover.

"We're leaving," she called over her shoulders in a clipped tone.

"But why?"

"No questions, just come with me."

The young woman pulled down her hood as she caught up to her mother, revealing a head of choppy, heavily streaked hair that was almost as scruffy as the brunette's. The two women didn't look much alike; where one was dark and slight, the other was fair and rather curvy- even in the wrong places. The daughter's eyes matched an amethyst as well as her mother's eyes matched the Nile. Those murky, green-blue eyes were glazed with years of the life of the nomads, and today they were even bright with sorrow.

The two slipped past the walls of the city, and when they were convinced that no one could see them, they both breathed deeply and transformed smoothly into a pair of golden-coated jackals. They raced nearly a mile out into the desert, jaws open to taste the wind whipping around the sand, and found their people grouping around a small oasis. There were probably around twenty men, thirty women and a few dozen children of varying ages. The mother and daughter changed back, and one old man looked to the middle-aged woman.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" he asked wearily.

She nodded her head and looked at the others. "We can leave, now," she called, "Let's head out."

The others started to transform, much as she and her daughter had, into more jackals, having been waiting to leave for the last few hours. Their leader took them to the capital city of Egypt every year, only for a few hours, and usually coming back with the intense urge to leave. They all knew why, but were forbidden to tell her daughter.

The girl turned her tapered muzzle to her mother and let out a small growl. "Why won't you tell me why you keep dragging me there every single year? I'm getting tired of it, Mother."

"Azeneth," the lead animal yipped back, flattening her ears at her daughter. "It's a long story."

Both the jackal alpha and the King of Egypt were losing themselves in memories at the same time, feeling the heavy weight on their heart that had been hanging there for nearly fifteen years.


	2. Beginnings

Alright, time for the real story to start. Yes, this is mostly through flashbacks. And everything will get explained eventually, so don't get excited. And just a note, I'm trying very hard to write this by mixing both the storyline (characters, objects, soul monsters, etc.) and actual historical facts (mostly whatever's relevant to egyptian life, such as Gods, laws, fashion. etc.). However, everyone gets to keep their hair. Atem will never do the wig thing in my stories.

~Twenty Years Earlier~

It was late at night, and Atem still hadn't finished going over his funerary scrolls. He rubbed at his weary eyes and sighed deeply. The death of his father had been so sudden, but there was still time before Atem was officially the king. There was a seventy-day period to go through the mummification process, then the funeral of King Akhenamkhanen, and finally there was the coronation of the new pharaoh. Until then, his father's vizier, Siamun Muran, would take over the official duties and would stand in as ruler. The twenty-year-old Prince was feeling overwhelmed with everything going on, but there was no time for emotion, now. He would grieve when they entombed his father.

He looked outside, into the star-studded night.

He needed to go out.

Hunting down a plain white kilt was easy enough, since he'd been hiding them around his rooms since he was a teenager. It was his hair he'd always had trouble with. Atem's tri-coloredspikes were uncommon at best, and stood out immensely in the crowds of the common Egyptians. Not much worked, but a hooded cloak would suffice for the middle of the night. He removed his gold and jeweled trappings until he was satisfactorily dressed like a farmer's son, and then made his way to the window. Scaling the side of the palace wall was easy enough after all these years of sneaking away. And so began his night of freedom.

~Somewhere outside the palace walls~

He was there, slipping over the wall and behind an impeccably pruned bush. Though the vegetation wasn't technically part of the palace grounds, they were kept up by slaves just as well as the royal gardens. His scent wafted over the air, kyphi and spicy galbanum. He must have spent part of the day in the Shrine of Wedju. Behind the stone wall of a nearby house, the smell made the girl watching him need to sneeze. She held it in, determined not to give away her position on her first night out as the leader of the group.

But her curiousity made her want to keep looking. The combination of her Greek blood and her nomadic lifestyle ironically kept her from seeing too much of the world of others'. In Egypt, people with such a fair complexion and light eyes were not received well. A boy coming out of the Palace wouldn't be a likely exception, either. Gods, did he look strange.

He looked her way, and she pressed herself against the wall. Unfortunately, the tiny bells on her ankles let out the smallest of sounds, and they rang out like a thunderstorm in the silence of the night. She and he froze, but he was the one brave enough to investigate. She held her breath as he drew near, mutely trying to find a way to escape. She thought of diguising herself, but a wild jackal was a scavenger of the dead, and wouldn't be welcomed so close to someone's home. Besides, if she tried to run, he might follow her. The others were a good distance from the city wall, but if he had the courage to go that far (because, in her opinion, his vibrations seemed bored) he would find himself a colony of jackals that harbored a few melanistic animals. Pure blacks jackals were often captured and worshipped as manifestations of the Egyptian god of the dead, and she knew that her friends wouldn't appreciate that. They were nomads for a reason.

He was so close to her now, she could hear his breathing as if it were in her ear. As a woman, she would have to answer to some very awkward questions. But at least she could keep her clan safe. She could be a convincing liar when she had to be. She exhaled, steadied herself, and turned out of her hiding space to face him.

Her breath caught in her throat again when she found herself mere inches away, and he had to abruptly stop himself from crashing into her.

"I knew there was someone hiding," he whispered, glancing at the home behind which they were hiding. His voice was deeper than she had expected, and it caught her off-guard. So did the blondbangs that seemed threateningly close to poking out his eye. Though he wore a cloak, he couldn't hide those. He glowered down at her and added, "Who are you and why are you sneaking around?"

"Who are you, and why are you sneaking out?" she hissed back, feeling the hair on the back of her neck rise with irritation as well as fear. Whatever face she was making at him, she was terrified of what could happen to her.

Her ears pricked and she could hear someone inside the dwelling stir. She needed to move, and fast. Alerting the city to her presence was the last thing she needed.

"Are you planning on turning me into the authorities for going on a nighttime stroll?" she asked defiantly.

"You're the one acting suspiciously."

"Yes, but I can at least use the excuse that you frightened me, and that's why I was hiding. I have a feeling that they won't be happy that you're sneaking out of the palace, whoever you are."

She turned and walked away, leaving him looking nonplussed. He wasn't used to being spoken to this way. Of course he followed her, having no intention of losing her on what was turning out to be an interesting night. The girl weaved quickly through the alleyways, trying to shake him off, but he was too good at navigating these streets already.

"What's your name?" he called after her. She stopped when she reached the main road and looked at him, fighting with herself about whether or not she should answer. She must have decided against it, because she just kept running from him.

"Why won't you leave me alone?" she asked back, not looking behind her.

That's when he noticed she was trying to lead him out of the city. He nodded and kept going, allowing her to make her way in silence. There would be plenty of time to talk on the outside, and a limited need for secrecy. She was sure to use a route that had no guards, which worried Atem. How well did she know Egypt's capital? Was it this easy to break into the city unnoticed? All of these were questions he planned on asking her later.

With a final twisting pathway, she had successfully gotten herself on the safer side of the wall. Well, safer in her opinion, anyway. So, she stopped for him, holding back a chuckle at the look on his face.

The hood from his cloak had flung back, exposing a huge mass of black, spikey hair streaked with yellow and red, and he was obviously exhausted, or at the very least dizzy as hell. He must not have been accustomed tofinding hiswayaround the way she could. He had to lean against the arch of the minor gate, but he still insisted on his questions of earlier.

"Now can you please tell me who you are?" he panted, "Just a name. I don't even care about why you're here anymore. All I want is your name."

He gazed at her. In the city, there had been too much shadow for him to get a good look at her. Now that she was under the moonlight, he could see almost every detail. Before he had thought that there was a strange glow about her, but now it was plain to him that she just had very pale skin. Her dark hair was bound back into a simple plait, but a long one that was only half a foot or so above her knees. She furrowed her brow at his studying of her.

"In your tongue, my name is Irisishemei," she said, "But whatever you wish to call me is up to you. I doubt we'll meet again, you see." Her eyes were boring into him, but they were burning with some kind of dazzling heat. "Personally, I prefer the 'Irisi' part."

Now he could see the small pearl that seemed to be imprinted into her forehead, and it sparkled like her eyes. He continued his survey of her body, if only because her coloring intrigued him so. She wasn't a normal shape, less like a person and more like a pear, with wide, rolling hips and a narrow torso and set of shoulders. From her clothing, he couldn't see much more of her than that, but he got the feeling that it was enough.

"I'm... I'm Atem," he admitted. There weren't many men in Egypt with his name, but there were enough. People were named for Gods every day.

She looked at him longer, narrowing her eyes before she nodded and said, "Alright."

"What were you doing hiding in the shadows?"

Rolling her eyes, Irisi huffed, "I thought you said you didn't care about that anymore."

"I don't. But I figured we could at least have a conversation before we part."

His eyes and his tone were genuine, like he legitimately wanted to try this speaking business. Irisi couldn't help herself, and her face softened.

"You tell me first," she conceded, "Why you were scaling the palace wall. Then I'll tell you what I wanted out of your precious city."

The cry of a jackal sounded in the distance, and she turned her head ever so slightly towards it, but she looked back towards Atem. She puzzled him, and he liked it.

"I just needed out fora little while." He wanted to tell her the truth... just not all of it. "After the death of the king, things have been a little hectic around the palace."

She tilted her head towards him. "I hadn't heard the king had passed," she murmured. Her arm twitched, betraying just how troubling this information was for her. "When? How?"

Now it was his turn to feel uncomfortable. He didn't like reliving his father's death, even in private. And it was strange that she didn't know, because even the neighboring countries would have gotten the news by now. But her tone was hushed, and even urgent in its own way, and it made him feel like she should know.

"You're not from Egypt, are you?" When she shook her head, he nodded and insisted, "Walk with me." Side by side, they strode through the night.

"It was towards the end of the war. The Pharaoh's forceshad been beating off the last wave of the invading Libyans. They had something that the Libyans haven't harnessed yet- the power of the Ka. The spirit monsters the Millenium Priests use to fight and to judge the souls of the criminal. Several of the priests had been there, directing the front lines, and this is where the rumours of the King's death start to become murky and many." He let ot a derisive, humorless laugh, and continued, "Some say that one of his wounds became infected, and he died of the disease. Others say that the Libyan leader cornered him in the middle of the battle and decapitated him... But the Prince had been there, too. He had to watch as his father, the Pharaoh, was struck down by the very spirit beasts he had sought to control. A general from the opposing forces had tortured the methods out of some of their Egyptian prisoners...

"The king's life was stripped away by a terrible beast that wasn't of this world. The Prince..."

Atem broke off, unable to continue. Reliving this evil memory was like being cut down himself, but he swallowed his grief and finished, "The Prince retrieved the Millenium Puzzle before the Libyans could get their hands on it. The Priests finished the battle and, thank the gods, won the rest of the war."

He thought back to the Millenium Puzzle safely locked away in a special golden box he'd had made. He couldn't bear to wear it yet, so he just kept it in his royal suite.

The entire time, Irisi hadn't taken her eyes off of Atem. This was all information of which she should've been aware the moment it had happened. Ignorance like this could potentially mean life or death for her kind, and diplomacy was essential for their survival with other lands. If she started asking around for the wrong king, touching nerves and opening wounds that should be left to fester or heal on their own, then she could find herself imprisoned. Maybe beheaded.

"I'm sorry to hear that," she replied softly, finally looking away, "But it sounds like an honorable death, defending your country. I'm sure he's proud of the sacrifice he made." She gazed out into the desert and added, "Osiris and Anubis will keep him safe and guide him to the Duat."

Atem nodded, surprised that she knew of the gods of Egypt. Her name did mean "Desire made by Isis," but Isis was worshipped in parts of Rome and Greece, too. The other gods weren't so popular.

"I feel sorry for the Prince, though."

That threw him off-guard. "Wh-what? Why?"

Irisi shrugged and explained, "Seeing your father being kill right in front of your eyes... by a creature that you can't physically fight, no less. It must be horrible. And then they're going to throw him right into the kingship, and being Pharaoh over this land can't be easy." There was understanding in her voice, and she looked up to the palace. With a sigh, she said, "Hopefully someone can give him comfort during this time... he might fall apart if no one does."

Watching her watch his palace, Atem tensed and said, "That's quite a touching sentiment. I'm sure that they're taking excellent care of him."

"Well, don't you know?" she inquired, her eyes large and round like the moon, "You came from the palace, didn't you? You must work there or something."

"Yes, something like that." Now it was his turn to glower down at her. He wasn't the tallest person in the world, but he could still tower over her. "Why were you watching the palace the way you were?"

Shrugging again, and sitting herself down against the wall, Irisi said, "I just wanted to see what it looked like, really. Maybe catch a glimpse at one of the priests."She looked up at him and smiled. "Come sit with me. We have several hours before sunrise... I have a feeling that you don't really want to go back."

Atem had smile back at her, feeling a bit lighter than he had in a while. "You're right," he said, "I really don't.


	3. Dreaming

"How did you manage to get a gem embedded into your forehead?"

Since they met, Atem had been sneaking out almost every night to see Irisi. After that first evening, she hadn't brought up the death of the king again, but she had only tried asking him questions about the city. For whatever reason, this was her favorite subject and she took in his every word as if it were air. So, in return, he asked questions about her. After all, that was what interested him most at the moment. She was a mysterious change of pace from the somber tone of the palace, where he spent most of his time talking diplomacy with his officials and going over the opening of the mouth ceremony for his father with the Millenium Priests. It had been decided that Atem would be the one to conduct it, to assert his status as the new Pharaoh.

Irisi looked puzzled and touched the pearl between her brows, having nearly forgotten it was there. "Oh, this?" She sighed and looked up at the stars, grasping for a handful of figs from the bag that Atem had brought. They'd been snacking out of this bag of palace garden fruit since the sun had set.

"I guess it's been there since I was just a child. It's a… well, a bit of a tradition where I'm from. The pearl is a sacred stone in our culture, and some people have this done to their kids." With a laugh, she added, "We carve of a small chunk of flesh, place the pearl in the wound, bandage it for a while, then wait for the skin to heal around the pearl and lock it into place like it's naturally part of the body. Hurts like a bitch at the time, but looking back it's a funny tradition."

A pair of the small figs went into her mouth, and she turned and saw Atem staring at her. He looked both disturbed and disgusted at the same time, which made her laugh again. He, on the other hand, shuddered.

"That's not right!" he bemoaned, trying to imagine what the process would feel like, "That's just… that's sick!"

"Oh, calm down, it's not even an entire pearl," she dismissed, waving her hand and popping another fig into her mouth, "We have to cut it down so that it looks about halfway in without having to seriously injure someone. Besides, only certain kids can wear it like this."

"And what makes you so special?"

At this she paused and looked away, debating what she should say to him about that. She still wasn't ready to tell him what she was really doing in the city. If he went to the new king about this, then everything would be ruined. So, she furrowed her brow with a grin, playfully looking at him with disbelief.

She said, "Why so many questions, Atem?" It was his turn to chuckle and he bit into a chunk of bread slathered with avocado.

Shrugging, he replied, "You're just more interesting than what's been going on in the palace, lately. You're the most exotic, anyway."

This was the most either of them had laughed in a very long time.

Atem's heart was feeling lighter than it had since the death of his father, making his time with Irisi feel like a dream. It was strange, being in the world during the day where she didn't seem to exist. The next day, Siamun had called a meeting between the priests, himself, and even Atem. The almost-king sat at the large, stone table with the blue fire in the center that the priestess Isis often used to help her look into the future. The others looked solemn as they, too, joined the congregation, but Atem stayed relaxed. The Millenium Priests always seemed serious, even his oldest friend, Mahaad. Why should this be any worse?

"You've been looking more and more cheerful lately, Your Highness," remarked Isis with a small smile, "I'm happy to see that you're starting to recover from the King's death."

With a brief nod, Atem replied, "I'll always grieve for my father. But there are other matters to focus on at the present time." Turning to Siamun, he added, "What was it you wanted to speak with us about?"

The old man cleared his throat and looked imperially around at the others. He seemed to be enjoying his time as "pharaoh," but Atem knew there would be no problems with the return of the throne. "We've been receiving reports about wild animals from all over the city. Most of them are from the outer edges, but they've been seen down the main road, as well."

"I've heard them during the day," Shada chimed in, "They're merely jackals, Siamun, those have never been known to harm the living before."

"Yes," added Mahado, "The jackal is a guardian of the dead. I'd be more worried if they were stalking down tombs and the burials sites of the common people and digging up graves."

"Well, it seems these creatures are stealing food from the citizens," Siamun explained, "Mostly in groups of twos and threes, but we've been keeping track. There are at least fifteen, maybe twenty different animals terrorizing the shop keepers! They're starting to worry that the jackals might get hungry enough to start going after small children."

"Have we heard from the farms on the Nile?" said Akhenaden, the holder of the Millennium Eye, "It can't be long until the jackals start going after their livestock."

"We have records of some complaints of livestock attacks from a few months ago," said Siamun, scratching his head to remember this correctly, "But that's about it. It wasn't as large-scale as this, at any rate." Seeing the look on Akhenaden's face, he added, "There hasn't been anything recent, though, if that was what you were asking."

"Should we put a higher guard on the city?" Atem's words were sudden, but he had been thinking about the issue the entire time. "It sounds like we might be dealing with a pack of jackals, which is odd in itself." Looking up at the others, he added, "Maybe we should start capturing them…"

Priest Seto added, "We could take the hides and use them for our trading routes. Rome and the rest of them are always looking for something new."

"I request that if we capture any black jackals," Shada put in, "We give them over to the Temple of Anubis. We could even try to train them to guard the Valley of the Kings."

Atem thought of his father and what he would have thought had he known he would have wild dogs as guards in the afterlife. With a swallowed laugh, he could even see the Akhenamkhanen thinking the idea a brilliant way to connect with the gods and paying homage to Anubis. So, with a look towards both Seto and Shada, Atem nodded his agreement with the idea.

Siamun summarized everything so that everyone could understand the new situation. "I'll send out troops immediately with instructions to capture any jackals they find thieving from the citizenry. Unless it's pure black, we'll give them over to the captains at the river port and see what uses they'll have in our trade."

There were other notes for the meeting, of course, but Atem had ceased to pay attention. His cognitive resources for the day hadn't been used up, but he was now wondering what Irisi would've said about the jackal problem. She had discussed politics and government policy with him before, and she'd mentioned briefly that she preferred Egypt's system under Pharaoh Akhnamkhanen as opposed to other lands she had visited, but she had also wondered aloud whether or not the new king would be quite as kindly and filled with justice as the previous one had. Not all men had such a straight-pointing moral compass when they were in power, according to her.

Once he sensed the movement of the Priests, he immediately jumped up to leave the room, feeling distracted to the ways of palace life. Isis was next, and had caught up with him straight away to stop him, pulling him away from prying ears.

"Your Highness," she said in her soft, misty voice, "Something seems to be troubling you lately. Is there anything you would wish to talk about."

With a smile, Atem answered, "Nothing troubling, Isis. I've just been having… relaxing dreams lately, rather than nightmares."

He tried walking away, but something that Isis called after him made him stop. "Is it a woman?"

Turning, he slowly shook his head, not knowing why he felt the need to lie for Irisi. Her need for secrecy around him seemed to be infectious. "Why do you ask?"

With a sigh, Isis said, "Be careful what dreams you choose to follow, Your Highness. They don't always end without nightmares."

Atem nodded to her and continued on his way, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Isis had an irritating way of making him think over any blessing in his life.


	4. Captive

Fire was licking at the dark sky, shooting up sparks towards the waning moon, and Irisi was deeply inhaling the smells of the burning wood and the cooking meat in the night. Her people, upon her request, had moved from the desert and to the Nile river, about a mile or so out from the city. She wanted to be closer, but the elders insisted upon keeping their distance. Normal humans meant trouble, especially now that there were rumors of jackal attacks going around.

One of her higher-up subordinates had brought this news back to camp. Akhir, as he was called, had snorted and shook his head out as if he were trying to get rid of a fly. "This is ridiculous," he had said to her, "We'd never touch a hair on anyone's head unless they attacked us first." His partner on the reconnaissance mission, a female subordinate named Yara, had been the one to hear and relay even worse tidings to Irisi.

"There are more guards than usual," she had added, looking grim, "And they keep talking about the black jackals. Something about temples and taming."

After that, Irisi had forbidden the melanistic jackals from entering the city. She wouldn't risk their lives when she could put herself in their place just as well, and without the consequences.

Akhir approached her again, breaking her out of her thoughts, and he didn't look pleased. She sighed before he even started talking—the look in his eye said everything, and she was honestly surprised he hadn't brought this up sooner.

Nostrils flaring, he started in on her with, "Okay, a week I can handle, but two is pushing it." Irisi bit back a laugh. He was very lucky that he and his brother had been her childhood playmates, otherwise he wouldn't be allowed to speak like that to her. His tawny-brown eyes flashed angrily at her, and he implored, "Please, let's leave already."

She only snorted with amusement before going back to her business. He knew as well as she did that the clan wasn't going anywhere, and she'd pay them hell to keep them there. The next night, she would see Atem. Thoughts of him lit the fire in her belly that usually only burned through her during the hunt. Sniffing the new breeze, she made a decision: screw it all, she'd go to him now.

The city's air was warm and thin on her pelt as she melted in and out of the shadows, unseen. Eyes bright, she tried scenting Atem as she drew nearer to the palace walls, but couldn't find him. Several sets of plants inside and out of the walls were blooming with new flowers, and their sweet stench cloyed her senses. Tilting her head, Irisi paused a moment before dashing to the wall and transforming back into a human. Feeling exhilarated, she wondered about the best way to draw him out from the palace.

It was only then that she heard a man shout in fear, when she hadn't heard his footsteps over the sound of her racing heart. The guards came running at the sound of snarling and a woman's frustrated screeches. When they got there, she had turned back into a jackal, hoping that the guards would have a harder time catching her. Her teeth were latched onto the first man's leg, and he beat her with the butt of his s[ear until she released him. With a yelp, she fell back, trying to shake off the pain. The sounds of another jackal made her open her eyes, and she saw Akhir protecting her.

He snapped at the heels of one of the attacking guards, and tugged at the flesh he managed to grip in his jaws. He was fighting better than Irisi, mostly because she was angry that he had followed her, and this was distracting her terribly as she leaped back into the fight. It was five on two, and she didn't like their odds when she heard the hoofbeats of two approaching people on horseback. Shada and Mahad rounded the corner, and when Irisi saw the Millenium items hanging from their necks, she bristled in fear.

Raising her tail, she froze and barked at Akhir, telling him to run. He growled, refusing, but she signaled to him her insistance. With a fierce look to her, he knew he had to trust his leader, only out of obligation. Irisi snarled and lunged at him before he turned tail and ran away. While she was paying attention to him, her back was towards the humans, and she was doomed.

She felt ropes around her neck dragging her to the ground. More were hobbling Irisi, tying her front paws together as well as her hind. Another rope was bound around her jaws to keep her from biting, and that's when she started to panic. She could hear the priests talking, listening to the man's account of the jackal turning into a woman, and they looked suspicious. That is, until, Shada caught sight of the jewel glowing dimly in the moonlight, nestled in the soft fur of her brow.

"Take it to the palace," he ordered the guards, his eyes widening, "It requires further study."

A guard lifted her over his shoulder in her captive state, and she started to thrash as hard as she could.

"No!"

She shrieked and turned back into a human, causing the startled guard to drop her immediately. The rope around her jaws had fallen away from her human face, but she still had to pull herself up with her wrists and ankles tied. Her bonds tightened, having to fit around larger joints, but Irisi tried to look up at her captors with pleading eyes.

"Don't hurt me," she said in a low voice, panting while trying to calm her racing pulse, "Please. I'll go with you peacefully, just don't hurt me."

Mahad had reined his horse back a few feet, staring at her in horror. "What is it...?" he whispered, more to himself than anyone else. She frowned.

"I'll anwer all of your questions, anything you want," she reiterated, wanting to calm them all down, "But I ask that you allow me an audience with the King."

"Why do you want to speak with the great Pharaoh?!" commanded Shada, "Why should we allow such a strange, possibly even dangerous creature near our ruler?"

Irisi glowered, her murky eyes gleaming in the moonlight at them. "The reasons are mine. If you're present as well, you'll hear soon enough. Please, if you're going to take me into custody, I would prefer to go without a fight." Shooting a glance at the guards and regaining her clan chieftainess composure, she barked out, "Untie me. I will not run, but I will not be brought to the palace of the King of Egypt like a prisoner. I lead my own nation of people, if you must know."

The two priests looked at each other, trying to decide what to do. It took moments, but they finally nodded to each other, then gestured to the guards to untie her. "We will take you to the palace where you will be confined in a room, guarded until the Pharaoh is prepared to receive you."

Irisi breathed deeply as they cut her free with their spears, and she could smell the fear-scent rolling off of each of them. Inside, she was shaking, wondering how the elders were taking her disappearance. She knew that Akhir would be telling them that she had been captured by humans. The bulk of the citizens would be grumbling about how they knew something like this would happen, her younger warriors would be wanting to storm the city. Hopefully Akhir could keep them all in check until he could get the things she needed. If she was going to meet the Pharaoh finally, she would need to be received like the queen she was. Atem would find out sooner or later. Hopefully before he missed her the next evening.


End file.
